Ecosyste.ms: Awesome

An open API service indexing awesome lists of open source software.

https://github.com/denisbrodbeck/machineid

Get the unique machine id of any host (without admin privileges)
https://github.com/denisbrodbeck/machineid

cmdline cross-platform go golang hostid library machineid mit-license

Last synced: 11 days ago
JSON representation

Get the unique machine id of any host (without admin privileges)

Lists

README 

        
# machineid provides support for reading the unique machine id of most host OS's (without admin privileges)



![Image of Gopher 47](logo.png)



… because sometimes you just need to reliably identify your machines.



[![GoDoc](https://godoc.org/github.com/denisbrodbeck/machineid?status.svg)](https://godoc.org/github.com/denisbrodbeck/machineid) [![Go Report Card](https://goreportcard.com/badge/github.com/denisbrodbeck/machineid)](https://goreportcard.com/report/github.com/denisbrodbeck/machineid)



## Main Features



* Cross-Platform (tested on Win7+, Debian 8+, Ubuntu 14.04+, OS X 10.6+, FreeBSD 11+)

* No admin privileges required

* Hardware independent (no usage of MAC, BIOS or CPU — those are too unreliable, especially in a VM environment)

* IDs are unique[1](#unique-key-reliability) to the installed OS



## Installation



Get the library with



```bash

go get github.com/denisbrodbeck/machineid

```



You can also add the cli app directly to your `$GOPATH/bin` with



```bash

go get github.com/denisbrodbeck/machineid/cmd/machineid

```



## Usage



```golang

package main



import (

  "fmt"

  "log"

  "github.com/denisbrodbeck/machineid"

)



func main() {

  id, err := machineid.ID()

  if err != nil {

    log.Fatal(err)

  }

  fmt.Println(id)

}

```



Or even better, use securely hashed machine IDs:



```golang

package main



import (

  "fmt"

  "log"

  "github.com/denisbrodbeck/machineid"

)



func main() {

  id, err := machineid.ProtectedID("myAppName")

  if err != nil {

    log.Fatal(err)

  }

  fmt.Println(id)

}

```



### Function: ID() (string, error)



Returns original machine id as a `string`.



### Function: ProtectedID(appID string) (string, error)



Returns hashed version of the machine ID as a `string`. The hash is generated in a cryptographically secure way, using a fixed, application-specific key (calculates HMAC-SHA256 of the app ID, keyed by the machine ID).



## What you get



This package returns the OS native machine UUID/GUID, which the OS uses for internal needs.



All machine IDs are usually generated during system installation and stay constant for all subsequent boots.



The following sources are used:



* **BSD** uses `/etc/hostid` and `smbios.system.uuid` as a fallback

* **Linux** uses `/var/lib/dbus/machine-id` ([man](http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man5/machine-id.5.html))

* **OS X** uses `IOPlatformUUID`

* **Windows** uses the `MachineGuid` from `HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Cryptography`



## Unique Key Reliability



Do note, that `machine-id` and `MachineGuid` can be changed by root/admin, although that may not come without cost (broken system services and more).

Most IDs won't be regenerated by the OS, when you clone/image/restore a particular OS installation. This is a well known issue with cloned windows installs (not using the official sysprep tools).



**Linux** users can generate a new id with `dbus-uuidgen` and put the id into `/var/lib/dbus/machine-id` and `/etc/machine-id`.

**Windows** users can use the `sysprep` [toolchain](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/sysprep--generalize--a-windows-installation) to create images, which produce valid images ready for distribution. Such images produce a new unique machine ID on each deployment.



## Security Considerations



A machine ID uniquely identifies the host. Therefore it should be considered "confidential", and must not be exposed in untrusted environments. If you need a stable unique identifier for your app, do not use the machine ID directly.



> A reliable solution is to hash the machine ID in a cryptographically secure way, using a fixed, application-specific key.



That way the ID will be properly unique, and derived in a constant way from the machine ID but there will be no way to retrieve the original machine ID from the application-specific one.



Do something along these lines:



```golang

package main



import (

  "crypto/hmac"

  "crypto/sha256"

  "fmt"

  "github.com/denisbrodbeck/machineid"

)



const appKey = "WowSuchNiceApp"



func main() {

  id, _ := machineid.ID()

  fmt.Println(protect(appKey, id))

  // Output: dbabdb7baa54845f9bec96e2e8a87be2d01794c66fdebac3df7edd857f3d9f97

}



func protect(appID, id string) string {

  mac := hmac.New(sha256.New, []byte(id))

  mac.Write([]byte(appID))

  return fmt.Sprintf("%x", mac.Sum(nil))

}

```



Or simply use the convenience API call:



```golang

hashedID, err := machineid.ProtectedID("myAppName")

```



## Snippets



Don't want to download code, and just need a way to get the data by yourself?



BSD:



```bash

cat /etc/hostid

# or (might be empty)

kenv -q smbios.system.uuid

```



Linux:



```bash

cat /var/lib/dbus/machine-id

# or when not found (e.g. Fedora 20)

cat /etc/machine-id

```



OS X:



```bash

ioreg -rd1 -c IOPlatformExpertDevice | grep IOPlatformUUID

```



Windows:



```batch

reg query HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Cryptography /v MachineGuid

```

or

* Open Windows Registry via `regedit`

* Navigate to `HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Cryptography`

* Take value of key `MachineGuid`



## Credits



The Go gopher was created by [Denis Brodbeck](https://github.com/denisbrodbeck) with [gopherize.me](https://gopherize.me/), based on original artwork from [Renee French](http://reneefrench.blogspot.com/).



## License



The MIT License (MIT) — [Denis Brodbeck](https://github.com/denisbrodbeck). Please have a look at the [LICENSE.md](LICENSE.md) for more details.